Waiting for Wonder Woman - NYTimes.com

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She said that women have only about 28 percent of speaking parts in mainstream movies of all kinds and that the number has inched up less than 1 percent over the last two decades. At this rate, Davis said with a laugh, “We’ll achieve parity in 700 years. I want to be very clear. We are dedicated at my institute to cutting that number in half.”

Lead roles in action movies are even more rare, and lead roles as superheroes rarest of all: “Supergirl” in 1984, “Catwoman” in 2004, “Elektra” the following year. All underperformed at the box office, and Hollywood got spooked, even though the reason was quality, not gender.

On television, which puts movies to shame, female spies, lawyers, detectives, profilers and forensic scientists abound. And a black female superhero runs Washington. The show is called “Scandal.”